Workin'!

Dear family and friends, 

As you've all heard by now, I'm training again. I have the opportunity to train Elder Effiom, a 26 year-old from Nigeria. He has an interesting background, and its fun getting to know him better. He's very smart, mature, and totally converted to dedicating 2 years to the Lord. He told me last night that he's on a mission just to say "thank you" to Heavenly Father for all that He's done for him. I thought that was really cool of him to say. He comes from a very old family. Both of his parents have passed on, and his oldest sibling is over 50 years old. He has the desire to learn as much as he can, and I'm happy that I get the opportunity to serve with him. 

We've found several new people with some good potential. This week will be full of "following up" with them and begin teaching. 

Yesterday we only had 1 investigator attend sacrament meeting, but my companion extended a baptismal date to her after church, and she accepted! Best part of Sunday was that nearly every recent convert in the past year came, which is so nice to see. We pray and pray that our converts will stay converted and that we can rely on the members to nourish them more than us, so seeing them come to church on their own without a reminder or visit is nice to see. 

This afternoon our zone went to a monkey sanctuary. It was pretty fun having monkeys climb on us and feeding them bananas. Not every day you get to do that!  

I was reflecting a little bit on how fortunate I am to receive great, detailed letters from each of you every single week. I realize sometimes you're busy with work and school and it may be a bit of a burden to email me sometimes, but I really REALLY appreciate it when I read your letters every week. Jacob would know how nice it is for a missionary to hear from his family and friends on Mondays. It would probably be easier to write me if you were to get a response on each letter, and I'm sorry I cannot write back personally to you much, but I do read and reread your letters and really enjoy them. The pictures are super great too. So I just wanted to say thanks for what you're doing and it doesn't go unnoticed or for granted. 

Love ya fam! Thanks for all your love and support. 

Have a great week! 

Love Elder Nissinen